A Guide to Draining Your Swimming Pool

Emptying a swimming pool is not like emptying the bath. You’re dealing with a substantial amount of water – the average pool might contain some 60,000 litres – that can’t just be released into the drainage system in one go. 

And if that water has been in the pool for a number of years, it will have likely been treated with a lot of chemicals over that time. That means that it shouldn’t just be emptied into the soil or any nearby watercourses either, which in any case would also probably be overwhelmed by that volume of water.

So why would you want to drain a pool anyway, and what’s the best and safest way to go about doing it? Our handy guide will provide all the information you need to know and show you how AA Turner Tankers can help you drain – and then refill – your swimming pool safely and effectively.

When should you drain a swimming pool?

The good news is that draining a swimming pool is not something that you have to do very often, hopefully no more than once every five years. Regular swimming pool maintenance and cleaning should mean that your water is clean and safe to use over long periods, so as long as the structure of the pool itself is secure, there’s no reason to go through the trouble of emptying it unless you really have to.

However, there are a few times that it does need to be done and these include:

• The lining of your pool is damaged and in need of repair
• It’s in need of a deep clean or repainting
• The water has been in for five years or more and needs refreshing

How to safely empty a swimming pool

One of the reasons that you should take care during swimming pool drainage is that for the previous few years, the lining will have had the pressure of large volumes of water pushing against it from the inside and large quantities of earth pushing against it from the outside. Suddenly take away the water from the inside and you run the risk of the pool lining cracking under the outside pressure.

For this reason, you’re far better planning to do it during periods of dry weather, because if the surrounding soil is wet it will be heavier and that pressure will be even greater.

Meanwhile, although swimming pools are equipped with the means to pump water out, they are not generally up to the job of draining the whole lot in one go. Attempting to do so could easily lead to sensitive – and expensive – equipment being damaged in the process.

For this reason, submersible pumps will generally be used. But when emptying a pool in this way, not only do you need to take great care (owing to the dangerous combination of water and electricity), but you also want a pump that’s going to empty your pool at a reasonable rate. And, of course, you need somewhere for that water to be safely pumped away to. 

Environmental considerations of draining a swimming pool

As mentioned earlier, you need to take care during swimming pool emptying, because it’s unlikely that your local sewer system will be able to adequately deal with that volume of water being released all in one go. And if you’re giving your water its five-yearly refresh, the water you’ll be draining is going to be rich in chemicals that shouldn’t be released into your local environment.

So what else can you do with all that unwanted water?

How a water tanker company could help

Water tankers from AA Turner Tankers could allow you to drain your pool in a controlled way that protects your local environment and makes disposing of all that water far easier and far safer than would otherwise be the case.

Our bulk water tankers can hold up to 30,000 litres of water at a time, which means that it won’t take many trips for us to remove your water and take it somewhere it can be safely treated. And when the time comes to fill up your swimming pool up again, our bulk water delivery service will be just as quick and efficient.

Find out more about how AA Turner Tankers’ water tankers can help with your swimming pool emptying and filling by getting in touch with us today. We’re here to help customers located in and around Colchester, Essex, Suffolk and parts of East Anglia, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and London.